Calendar of Events

St. John's University (MN)

Sponsored by Tennis (men)

Date: Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Time: 9:00 am

Location: Orlando, Fla.

The Luther College men’s tennis team got back on track with a 7-2 win over St. John’s University (MN) in Orlando, Fla. A huge win at No. 1 doubles changed the momentum of the match and gave the Norse momentum on the way to the team victory.

Nick Mozena and James Ayer put up the first point of the day with a dominating showing at No. 2 doubles, beating Willie Paul and Zach Shriwise by an (8-1) score. The other two doubles matches went down to the wire with each team winning one to give the Norse a slim 2-1 edge heading into singles. Sean Brown and Samuel Cychosz lost (8-6) to Jack Hansen and Andrew Nagel at No. 3 to even the score at 1-1. Ramesh Karki and Quinn Foley fell behind 7-3 at No. 1 doubles, but mounted a dramatic comeback to force a deciding tie-breaker. Down a match point in the tie-breaker, they responded by winning the final three points of the match to win (9-8 (6)) against Fabricio Moncada and Connor Rust.

Ayer continued his superb play, defeating Hansen (6-3, 6-1) at No. 4 to make it a 3-1 meet in favor of Luther. Straight set wins from Mozena and Matt Bellio clinched the match for the Norse. Mozena held off Joe Laue (6-2, 7-5) at No. 2 while Bellio beat Rust (6-4, 6-4) at No. 3. Foley was also a winner in two sets, edging Paul (6-3, 7-6 (1)) at No. 6. Torstein Jystad was able to pick up the seventh point of the day for Luther by grinding out a (7-6 (2), 4-6, (10-8)) win against Shriwise at No. 5. In a battle of regionally ranked players, Karki’s comeback effort came up just short in a (6-1, 6-7 (1), (10-4)) loss to Moncada at No. 1.